Yes Ma'am
by Angela-J
Summary: Rory's second year at Yale has started and she immerses herself into her studies, books, and the newspaper to try and forget about Dean. She meets someone whom she develops an unlikely friendship with.
1. A new 'hello'

Author's Note: Hi everyone! This is my first fan fiction ever. I've been reading fan fics for a while now and I thought that maybe I should get in there and see how it is on the other side of things. I'll appreciate all reviews, good, and bad because I do want to improve my writing. Thanks for taking the time to check this out and I hope you enjoy it. )

"**Yes ma'am"**

"Paris! I'll see you later, I've gotta go finish this story and hand it in tonight. I'll see you later for dinner!" Rory Gilmore pulls on her simple, brown sweater as she heads out the door of her dorm room on her way to Yale's student run newspaper.

"Rory! Wait! I ca—"

"Sorry, Paris but I gotta go. We'll talk about it later!"

"But I can't—"

Paris heaves a sigh of frustration as Rory slams the door shut behind her. "I can't make myself heard with that girl, and I'm Paris frikkin' Gellar."

..........

Rory rushes into the newspaper office and plops down into her chair and starts to furiously type in her story.

"Rory."

"Doyle, hi."

"Don't give me that smile, Gilmore. Your story's late."

"Well, not technically. You see, the newspaper doesn't print until 9 tonight and I can get this done if I just—"

"I very well know what time we go to the printers, Rory, since I am editor and all."

Rory's smile falters as Doyle's eyes start to get smaller and smaller and his lips get thinner and thinner.

"This isn't the first time that you've done this, Rory. You were supposed to hand in your story two hours ago."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, it's just that I've got so much to do and—"

"That's exactly the problem. You have TOO much to do. Give it a rest, Rory. You've been working too hard. It's your second year here. Don't ruin it by working yourself to the ground."

"No, I'm fine, really. I can handle it."

"I'm sure you can, Rory. I'm just not sure if I can. I need things handed in on time because I've got to get out of here too, you know."

"Doyle, please. This will never happen again."

"Rory, you're a good writer. But I'm going to have to let you go for now."

"What? No! Doyle, I promise that this is the last time. I'll do everything you want me to. I'll live in this office, I'll get you coffee, I'll—"

Doyle smiled an amused smile. "I'll gladly have you back on the team after you've taken some time off. Trust me. This is going to be better in the long run. Go home Rory. I'll see you in two weeks."

..........

"Paris! You won't believe what happened! Doyle took me off the newspaper! I mean, he fired me! Well, not really fire, fire but you know, like, let me go! Well, he let me go because I wasn't doing a great job, sure, so is that firing? He even told me that I was a "good" writer. He never dishes out compliments. And then he just...let me go! Can you imagine--? Paris? Hello!" Rory stared around their darkened room and realized that no one was home. She plops down on the sofa and takes out her phone.

Lorelai answers on the fifth ring, "Hi there, sweetie."

"Hey."

"You sound glum."

"I'm having a crappy day."

"Tell mama all about it. I've got my chips and dip ready."

"I'm glad that you see my life as some kind of entertainment for your amusement."

"That's why I had you, kiddo."

"Mom."

"Alright, child of mine. I'm listening."

Rory smiled. "Well, Dr. Crane..."

..........

_Two weeks later._

"Hey, Doyle," Rory smiles hesitantly at the editor.

"Rory! Glad to see you! What have you been doing these past two weeks?"

Rory looks confused. "Well, nothing. I—"

"Good! You can get right to work then. Glad to have you back on board." Doyle gives Rory an encouraging pat on the back and walks away.

Rory smiles. _Doyle was right. I needed those two weeks off. I had too much on my plate and I just needed to clear my head._

Rory starts to walk towards her desk only to find someone already sitting in her chair. _Her_ chair. _Her_ swivly chair. _Her_ comfortable, swivly chair. Someone is using _her _computer while sitting on _her_ chair. Some..._blonde_.


	2. Umm What?

Chapter II

Rory strides purposefully towards her desk with a stern face_. I've been gone two weeks and there's already some moocher trying to take over my job. Unbelievable. _"Excuse me."

"Yeah, okay. No! You have to come! Please? For me?"

Rory rolled her eyes. _This...this..._person_...has invaded my space and is using my phone for some lame conversation that's not even worth listening to_. She starts to poke the person in the back. "Excuse me."

"Hang on," then turns to Rory, "Can I help you?" A pretty blonde with doe-like blue eyes looks up at her with an open, smiling face.

Rory points to the chair. "You're in my seat."

"I'm sorry?"

"You're in my chair. That's my swivly chair. I'd like to have it back."

The blonde looks at her with a little smile. "I'm sorry but I didn't know that these chairs were _assigned_." She turns her back on Rory and starts to talk on the phone again.

Rory stares intently at the girl's head, willing her to turn around. _Come on, woman. Turn. Turn. Turn! Fine. _

Rory forcefully turns the chair around revealing a shocked, open mouthed blonde. "Okay, missy. This is _my_ swivly chair and I want it back!"

The blonde jumps up, phone still in hand and backs away from Rory.

"Look! You've messed it up already! The level is all wrong, the cushion isn't all...cushiony, and the wheels are all rusted or something! Look! They won't turn properly!"

"What is going on here?" Doyle scans the room and is surprised to see Rory Gilmore having a melt down in the middle of it all. He rushes towards the two girls, one looking horrified with a Vulcan death grip on the telephone, and one Gilmore bouncing up and down in her chair screaming out exact proportions of her chair and all the possible scenarios of why it "doesn't feel right" anymore.

"Rory--can--you--stop--bouncing for a second?" Doyle approaches Rory cautiously. "What's going on with you?"

"I dunno, Doyle. You tell me. You said that I'd be back on the team in two weeks and you just went ahead and gave my chair away!"

"Is this all about your chair?" Doyle looked incredulous.

"What! No. No! It's not just the chair! The chair represents my place here! You gave away my place on this team. I worked hard to get here and all of a sudden, it's not mine anymore! You promised me that you would give me another chance! But nooo! You go ahead and find someone else to take my place." Rory turns on the blonde, "And you're right. This chair was assigned. To me!"

Doyle started to laugh. "What is so funny?" The whole room bursts out laughing. "What? Why are you laughing? This isn't funny!"

The blonde steps up to Rory and gives her a smile. "I'm sorry. Really. I was just using your desk for today. I needed to type out a paper for my class and Doyle let me use one of the free computers since mine isn't working." She offers Rory her hand. "I'm Eliza."

Rory takes her hand, confused. "Rory."

"Nice to meet you, Rory. I'll just finish up here and you can have your--chair--back."

Rory looks at Eliza while trying to regain her composure. "Great. You do that."

Eliza prints out her paper and smiles at Rory and addresses Doyle. "Thanks for this, Doyle."

"No problem."

Rory starts to pick at a stray string on her sweater, too embarrassed to look up. She can feel the heat rising to her cheeks and she wishes that the ground will just open up and swallow her whole. She looks up to see Eliza's blonde hair disappearing through the open door.

"Rory, what's going on with you today? That's not like you. Are you taking drugs or something? I'll be more than happy to recommend you a therapist. I've been going since I was seven and she's a genius, let me tell you. I think she even cured me of my warts. They were always so green and puss-filled. Kinda had gangrene too. But —"

Rory walks away from Doyle, not letting him finish. "I'll be back."

..........

"Hey!"

Eliza turns around to see Rory running after her.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about all that. It's just that I was really under a lot of stress and Doyle made me take two weeks off, and that I really didn't want to. And then I come back from doing absolutely nothing and thinking that I was finally going to be able to relieve some pent up emotion by working on the newspaper when I saw you sitting in my chair. And using my phone, I mean, all I wanted was to get back in there, you know? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to blow up at you like that. I thought that Doyle just replaced me, and that didn't go over too well with my left side of the brain. I think it's where my Lorelai lives. Lorelai's my mom and she's the crazy one in the family and it just triggered, you know?" Rory offers a weak smile of apology. "I'm really sorry."

Eliza laughs. "Don't worry about it. It was pretty entertaining watching you lose it in front of the entire staff."

"Hey, you didn't look like you were enjoying it when you were clutching that phone as if your life depended on it," Rory joked.

"I admit, there was a time in there where I thought my life was in danger. I'm sure that the 'Lorelai' kicked in in full force at that point but then Rory came back, and thank god she did."

The two girls looked at each other and smiled. "Well, I gotta go back and try to salvage my reputation in there."

"Good luck with that. I'll see you around, Rory."

"Yeah. Nice meeting you."

Eliza gave her a look.

"Well, under the circumstances."

She laughed. "Under the circumstances."

..........

Rory opened her dorm room to a greeting of, "Hey, Crazy Chair Lady."

"Nice to see you too, Paris."

"I've gotta hand it to you, Rory. You certainly know how to make an impression. You've got half the staff scared to death. None of them will even go near your chair for fear that you're going to come after them screaming, 'My swivly chair doesn't swivel at the right height and at the same speed anymore!'. It's quite amusing. Now they think that _I'm _the nice, sane one. Can you imagine? I never thought that this day would come."

"What? When I've gone completely insane?"

"No. When people feel safer with me than with you."

Rory rolled her eyes. "How'd you hear about that anyway?"

"I had about six people all at once, calling my phone, instant messaging me, knocking on the door like maniacs talking about the 'girl that's obsessessing about her chair'...I swear, I thought they were going to jump my bones.

Rory groaned. "Paris, I'm never going to be able to live this down!"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. Everybody will probably be avoiding you for the next two years but at least you'll always have a seat. I'm sure anybody who sees you looking for one will offer you theirs or else be beaten to death by the Crazy Chair Lady."

Rory gave her a wry smile. "Thanks, Paris. You always know how to make me feel better."

"That's what friends are for."

..........

"One large black, please." Rory waited for the cashier to count out her change when Eliza approaches her from behind.

"Morning. You look saner today." She turns to the cashier, "One medium Café Mocha, please."

Rory took a sip of her coffee. "Morning. You're the one who got the full Lorelai effect yesterday yet you still have the courage to venture over and say hello."

Eliza took her cup from the cashier. "Keep the change." They walk towards an empty table and sit down. "Of course. I wouldn't want to miss any excitement again."

"I swear, that's never going to happen again. Believe me."

"That's too bad. Just when I thought things were going to get interesting." Eliza's phone rings and she looks at the caller I.D. "I gotta take this one, hang on. Hey! Sorry about what happened yesterday. I kind of got caught in the middle of," she looks up at Rory and smirks. "...something."

Rory laughs and rolls her eyes as she listened to this one sided conversation.

"No, it was just some crazy lady that was yapping about her chair..."

A distinct "Hey!" of protest was heard from Rory but was drowned out by Eliza's hearty laugh.

"Okay. Yes, I'm sure! Alright. I'll see you soon! Bye."

Rory emerges from her cup of coffee. "Boyfriend?"

Eliza shook her head. "Nah, that was my brother. He's coming to visit in a couple of days. I haven't seen him in weeks. I've been so busy with school and he never really gets a lot of time off. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Nope. It's just me and my mom. I have a half-sister though. She lives with my dad and his wife."

"Yeah? My brother's my twin actually. We were the best tag team until I got shipped off to boarding school in Paris when I was fourteen."

"Wow. That's tough."

Eliza shrugged. "It wasn't bad at all. I made great friends, had a wonderful time, and had a great education. That's the only reason why I got into Yale. If I stayed in Hartford I wouldn't have worked as hard."

"You live in Hartford?" Eliza nodded. "My grandparents live in Hartford."

"That's a coincidence." Eliza laughed. "I'm sorry, I don't even know your last name."

"It's Gilmore. Rory Gilmore. Better known to Hartford society as Lorelai Leigh Gilmore."

Eliza tried to mimic a snobby British accent. "Well, Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, it's a pleasure to be finally introduced to someone who is from the same over privileged background as I am. It was quite tiresome to continually converse with these commoners."

Rory laughed. "No way. My mom didn't raise me there, thank God. No offense."

"Well then, I envy you." Eliza said quietly. She then rose from her chair and threw away her empty cup. "I'll see you around, Rory." She gave Rory a quick wave and a smile as she walked away.

Rory threw away her own empty cup when she called out, "Hey! You didn't tell me your last name."

Eliza looked back to flash her a big grin. "It's DuGray! Elizabeth Sophia DuGray, and don't you forget it!" Her infectious laugh failed to bring even a hint of a smile to Rory's face.

"DuGray?"

..........


End file.
